SANDGATE Design Statement 2013 Foreword As a Sandgate resident, Chairman of the Parish Council and former Leader of Shepway District Council I am delighted to fully endorse this, the first Village Design Statement in Shepway. Bringing communities together in today’s world has never been more difficult. The Sandgate community has worked hard following the outcomes of the Sandgate Parish Plan to prepare this Design Statement and to set down key design principles for their parish in one comprehensive document. The Sandgate Design Statement represents the wishes of a community passionate about the protection of its built heritage and its outstanding natural setting of wooded hillsides and long coastline but at the same time eager to enhance its environment in challenging economic times. For a small parish, Sandgate’s history is particularly rich and varied, while periods of land instability over many centuries have also shaped the character and appearance of many parts of the parish. This Design Statement outlines such historical and topographical background in brief and provides guidance for householders, planners, developers and other statutory bodies as they consider future development in the parish of Sandgate. It complies with the Shepway District Core Strategy and has been adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document to it. As such, it forms a material consideration in the determination of all planning applications in the parish of Sandgate. I hope it will help make Sandgate a better place and that you find it both interesting and useful. Councillor Robert Bliss, Former Leader of Shepway District Council Chairman Sandgate Parish Council To download a digital copy of this document visit: www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/2122/4372/ Front cover: Sandgate Beach at Coastguard Cottages, looking west Rear Cover: Perfect Rainbow, Sandgate Beach looking east Opposite page: Sandgate Seafront, Granville Parade, on the annual Regatta day SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013 3 Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. Aims of this Design Statement 8 3. Planning Policy Context 9 4. The Development of Sandgate 10 5. Sandgate Conservation Areas 12 6. Character Areas 16 • Coolinge Lane Character Area 18 • The Corniches Character Area 20 • Enbrook Valley Character Area 22 • Escarpment Character Area 24 • The Esplanade Character Area 26 • High Street Character Area 28 • Radnor Cliff Character Area 30 • Sandgate Hill and Military Road Character Area 32 • Seafront Character Area 34 • Shorncliffe Camp Character Area 36 7. Land Instability 40 8. Sandgate’s Natural Landscapes 42 9. Improving the Public Realm of Sandgate High Street 46 10. Traffic and Parking 48 11. Design Principles 50 12. Developers Checklist 53 13. Sandgate Parish Council Action Points 53 14. Community Engagement 54 15. Acknowledgements 55 Opposite: Steps opposite Sir John Moore Memorial, Esplanade with views to the wooded Shorncliffe Escarpment above 4 SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013 Aims of the Sandgate Design Statement SDS 1 Compliance with There is widespread and growing local concern at the Village and Town Design Statements have proved to increasing threat to the highly attractive and historic be highly useful and effective in planning decisions and the Sandgate built environment of Sandgate by unsympathetic new appeals and a popular method of recording, celebrating development in recent years. One of the principal actions and enhancing what a local community feels are the Design Statement proposed in the Sandgate Parish Plan (2010) therefore distinctive features that make their town or village unique. was the production of a Village Design Statement to All applications for new “ensure that the wishes of the Sandgate Community will The Sandgate Design Statement is based on extensive development in Sandgate have a persuasive influence on the future development survey work, consultation and analysis by residents and parish should include a of the village”. businesses in the Parish. Shepway District Council has statement demonstrating how also provided welcome support throughout the process. they have complied with the Village and Town Design Statements focus specifically Principles of the Sandgate on design and local distinctiveness. They have been A series of 11 Design Principles have been produced as Design Statement. promoted by the government for over 20 years as a a result of this work. These are scattered throughout the way for communities to have a stronger voice in the Design Statement and are listed again in full towards the planning decisions that affect their towns and villages end of this document. directly. Over 50 Village Design Statements are in use across Kent. It is the fervent wish of all those who have worked on this Design Statement that it is used by all those planning to Such community-produced Design Statements have a build in the parish, together with those responsible for clear and narrow frame of reference: the design of new making decisions on development proposals, to ensure development1. It has thus always been the intention that that new development accords with the Sandgate Design they have a close ‘fit’ with the statutory planning system Statement and its Design Principles and is of high and in order to maximise their effectiveness. appropriate, quality and design. 1 For the purposes of this Design Statement ‘development’ refers to both new development as well as alterations and extensions to existing buildings. SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013 5 Planning Policy Context SDS 2 “To be successful, any new development needs to be based on a good understanding of local context Compliance … The positive features of the area should be identified and reinforced in any new proposal.” with the Kent Design Guide, 2006 Development The Sandgate Design Statement has been prepared by The NPPF therefore includes within its Core Planning the community of the parish of Sandgate to supplement Principles the requirements that planning empowers local Plan the policies of the Shepway Core Strategy Local Plan people to shape their surroundings and seek to secure (2013), the adopted guidance of the Kent Design Guide high quality design, taking account of the different roles and Development should (2006), and in compliance with the National Planning Policy character of distinctive areas. The Shepway District Core be consistent with the Framework (2012). In this it has been supported by the Strategy (Policy SS3) requires that all new developments National Planning Policy Local Planning Authority, Shepway District Council, through deliver “an insistence on high quality and sustainable design”, Framework (2012), the its active membership on the Steering Group. The Sandgate while Saved Policy BE13 requires that a high standard of policies of the Shepway Design Statement conforms with national, regional and local layout, design and choice of materials will be expected for all Core Strategy Local Plan planning policies which promote the importance of high new development. Materials should be sympathetic to those (2013), the Saved Policies quality design. predominating locally in type, colour and texture. of the Shepway District Local Plan (2006), the In the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) the Development should accord with existing development in principles and objectives government makes clear that it attaches great importance the locality, where the site and surrounding development of Kent Design (2006) and to ‘local character’ in design of new development, are physically and visually interrelated in respect of of this Design Statement “Developments should respond to local character and history, building form, mass, height, and elevational details. For and should acknowledge, and reflect the identity of local surroundings and materials, large, complex or sensitive sites, a design statement will preserve and enhance the while not preventing or discouraging appropriate innovation.”2 be required to include consideration of local landscape built and natural heritage character and distinctiveness. of the parish of Sandgate. 2 National Planning Policy Framework, DCLG 2012 3 This Policy has been saved because it sets out basic design principles in keeping with the requirements of PPS1. In addition, the Kent Design Guide SPD which was adopted against this policy needs the maximum possible lifespan. 6 SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013 Sandgate Parish Map SANDGATE DESIGN STATEMENT 2013 7 Development of Sandgate SDS 3 Footpaths and Sandgate is a parish that is both distinctive and diverse in dwellings, shops, taverns and other services springing up in character. Situated between the towns of Folkestone and Hythe, the village below to support the occupants of the camp and to Alleyways its largely linear layout stretches along two miles of coastline, cater for their entertainment. from where a number of deep valleys extend inland up the The historic narrow lanes steep, extensively wooded escarpment which runs parallel In 1828, Lord Radnor built the Lower Sandgate Road (known running inland from the with the sea, providing a dramatic setting for the village itself. also as Radnor Cliff) along the foot of the Undercliff to provide sea and connecting the improved access from Folkestone Harbour to Sandgate. The seafront and hillsides Historically, the origins of Sandgate lie with its castle, built in 1840 Tithe Map shows much development that would be to the High Street and the 16th century, along with those at Walmer, Deal, Sandown recognisable today, though as expected, it is mainly single the